Between The Young and the Restless viewers and the residents of Genoa City, nearly no one thought the romantic pairing of Audra (Zuleyka Silver) and Kyle (Michael Mealor) was built to last — and for good reason.
They started hooking up while Kyle was on the rebound from his failed marriage to Summer (Allison Lanier). Despite it being obvious to those around him that he was still in love with his soon-to-be ex, Kyle refused to acknowledge the fact. While he enjoyed himself in the bedroom escapades with Audra, he seemed to stay involved with her to prove a point that everyone saying he was still in love with Summer was wrong.
Then there’s the self-serving attribute of Audra’s character. Audra is ruthlessly ambitious and willing to do almost anything to get what she wants, regardless of whether or not her actions step on some toes. This character trait hasn’t rubbed Summer, Phyllis (Michelle Stafford), Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) or Diane (Susan Walters) the right way. We have to mention the irony in Diane not caring for Audra considering Audra behaves as she once did.
Years ago, Diane was a woman who went to some pretty low places to get what she wanted. Case in point, she tried to gain a foothold at Newman Enterprises by claiming to have gotten pregnant with Victor’s child. However, it was later revealed that she was actually carrying Jack’s (Peter Bergman) baby, who turned out to be Kyle.
With that said, could history repeat itself to a degree? Could a pregnancy soon be used to manipulate power in the Genoa City business world? Yes, and it’s possible that Audra is the center of it all.
We’ve long suspected that Audra would soon find herself pregnant. With her romantic interactions with both Kyle and Tucker (Trevor St. John), it made sense in the soap world for a "guess-the-parternity" storyline to develop.
Combine that with the fact that in The Young and the Restless episode airing on November 15, Kyle and Audra seemingly break up, and you again have the makings of a timely soapy pregnancy.
The breakup in question occurs when Kyle goes to see Audra and delivers the news that he wants to back out of their alliance with Tucker. She initially tries to sweetly persuade him to stay on board, but he’s adamant he doesn’t want to stab his family in the back. Plus, Kyle wants his dad to hand him the co-CEO position at Jabot, not take the job through cutthroat betrayal.
Audra then blasts Kyle for not being a man and essentially not having what it takes to make big moves in business. In return, he takes some shots at her about being ruthless and not really having people in her life she can trust, and the pair ends their conversation with Kyle storming out of the room. Audra later sends a text to Kyle apologizing, but he doesn’t appear interested in receiving it.
So with Audra and Kyle looking as if they could be broken up and Tucker’s plot for Jabot looking as if it may unravel sooner or later, Audra’s plan of becoming the CEO of Jabot doesn’t appear that great. Not to mention, even before Claire (Hayley Erin) kidnapped Nikki, Audra’s future as the Newman Media COO didn’t look that bright.
Longtime fans of the show know better than to ever count out a cunning person on a soap. We tend to think an Audra pregnancy is imminent and a baby may be what helps her stay an active part of the Genoa City corporate scene. We can picture a scenario where she finds out she’s pregnant with Kyle’s baby, and uses the child to work her way into the Abbott family and even Jabot. A move that is likely to really bother Kyle.
Let’s say she becomes pregnant with Tucker’s child. Even then, we can imagine she claims the child is an Abbott. Tucker doesn’t exactly have a business up and running and lacks social capital among the Genoa City residents, so Audra could feel pretending to be pregnant with Kyle’s child better serves her.
Although it may be premature, we’re on baby watch rounding out 2023 and going into the new year.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
